Wiknich, Clark verified for council, mayor

Wednesday

Aug 1, 2012 at 6:54 PMAug 1, 2012 at 6:58 PM

The number of verified candidates for city elections went from two to four this week, according to the city clerk’s office.The county clerk’s office verified election nominations for Dan Clark the mayor’s seat. The county also validated the paperwork for Tom Wiknich, Jim Sanders and Henry Wilson for city council.In addition, Mayor Pro Tem Chip Holloway pulled the election nomination packet to run for mayor.Holloway still has two years left on his council term.

By Jack Barnwelljbarnwell@ridgecrestca.com

The number of verified candidates for city elections went from two to four this week, according to the city clerk’s office.The county clerk’s office verified election nominations for Dan Clark the mayor’s seat. The county also validated the paperwork for Tom Wiknich, Jim Sanders and Henry Wilson for city council.In addition, Mayor Pro Tem Chip Holloway pulled the election nomination packet to run for mayor.Holloway still has two years left on his council term.Other candidates have yet to file their paperwork to be qualified as a candidate. Vice Mayor Jerry Taylor has pulled nomination paperwork for mayor, while Mayor Ron Carter and Supervisor Jon McQuiston’s field representative Lori Acton pulled paperwork for city council.Ridgecrest citizen Randy Jenkins has pulled election nomination papers, but has not specified whether it is for city council or mayor. He has also pulled paperwork to possibly run for Sierra Sands Unified School District Board of Trustees and the Water District Board of Directors.He can only serve on one elected seat.Wiknich, a former city council member who was unseated in the last election, said he was running for council in order to see that the city’s fiscal decision making was put on the right path,“Basically, after I left the city council, I was alarmed about the city’s fiscal standing,” Wiknich said.He said he had been hopeful that the incoming council would have been able to take fiscal responsibility and make hard decisions.“Over the last couple years, they continue to not make the hard decisions,” Wiknich said. “What I disagree with is how they are spending the money.”He said it was a matter of “nice-to-have spending versus need-to-have spending.” Items such as public safety and roads need to take priority, he said.“The police force shouldn’t just be maintained, we need to hire new officers,” he said.One of the items Wiknich said he found disturbing was the proposed parks and recreation expansion.“I do believe that we need to maintain the parks,” he said. “I don’t think we should build new ones.”Maintaining the parks would include improvements to make the parks compliant with current American with Disables Act requirements.“My first priority would be to bring everything up to ADA compliance instead of focusing on expanding,” Wiknich said.In all this, he said that he would like to open input to the people by reestablishing monthly town hall meetings. He said that those meetings stopped shortly after he left the council.“I should bring those back as an avenue for the people,” he said. “ I want the to make sure the people are involved in decision making.”